Sturdy Claws

My expectation: 

To never need a trowel again.  To look like a super hero.  To be able to defend myself if ever my garden area comes under attack.

My experience:

When I first spied these gloves on Amazon, I laughed.  It didn’t take me long to get over the giggles though and begin to wonder if the makers of these pointy tipped garden gloves were on to something.  The fact that they were eligible for Prime pushed me to hit the Add to Cart button and immediately check out.  

They arrived swiftly and in good condition though with a strong sterile, plastic-like smell.  I was surprised that only the right hand glove contained the claws, which are hard plastic and concave on the palm side down, and pointy, though not sharp, at the tips.  I found later that having the left hand as just a regular glove proved useful in picking up items since my right hand had an almost Edward Scissor Hands handicap.  Trying to pick items up off the counter in my garden shed proved quite comical.  It reminded me of my days long ago when I sported acrylic nails though not as long as these claws.    

The one size fits all didn’t suit my small hands even with my longish fingers.  Swimming a bit in the gloves didn’t help my clawed hand and lended to its clumsiness.  Eventually I ditched the left glove for one that fit properly and just went with mis-matched gloves.  A left handed purple and the green clawed right.  My “garden” clothes seldom match either so I wasn’t concerned.  

Wondering what the backyard creatures would think (if they noticed at all) of my newly clawed appearance, I stepped from my shed into my yard with a goal of planting.  I wanted to start small and dig a hole just big enough to plant some annuals.  Clawed up, I left my trowel behind and found some already loose soil to dig.  

I dug using the motion my cat favors to make biscuits on blankets and was able to make some progress.  I was able to remove soil, but probably could have done so just as easily with regular gloves.  However, the too-loose fit of the glove caused it to twist around my hand and mostly annoy me.  Since I’m a bit stubborn, I decided to keep working and try to plant some seeds.  Since I am also right handed, I naturally tried to open the package of a seed product (review to come) with my right handed claws and failed.  I had to take the glove off to get the package open.  I then put the glove back on and tried grab the item, but kept missing when trying to pick it up.  I opted for using my left hand to feed things to my right.  Teamwork.  

My next test involved an unopened bag of soil.  If those claws were good for something, I was sure it was opening bags.  Again, the gloves were a bit too loose, but I did manage to poke a hole in the bag.  After that, I tried some harder soil and found the product to work okay, but a shovel would have been better.

Finally I settled on weeding.  Search and destroy was my goal.  This is where I found some success.  I could scratch and dig with my right and then pull with my unclawed hand.  This worked fairly well for some weeds, but the ones with long roots still required a weeding tool. 

Findings:

I think a snug fit would have made the gloves fairly useful so I’d be interested in someone’s experience whose hands are bigger.  Size selection is a must.

It takes some getting used to when you are used to your fingers being a certain length and you forget (even though you are staring at it) that the claws make your fingers a lot longer.

They smell bad.  Hope that you are working with some good smelling things to counteract this.

They are good conversation pieces or maybe they are just good for weirding out your neighbors.  Be sure to make a crazy face while wiggling your claw tipped fingers at them in hello.

They are not sharp so other than eye pokes (be careful not to poke your own), they are not good for defending your green kingdom. 

There is a reason trowels and shovels are gardening/yard supply staples.  They just work.   These gloves?  I’ll stick with my regular ones and use tools for now.